Design of Work Systems

Design of Work Systems
In the “Making Hotplates” case study, 10 workers were responsible for assembling hotplates for medical and hospital laboratory use. Initially, each worker was responsible for assembling different parts of the hotplate as the hotplate was carried from station to the next. Once the hotplate was completed, someone would inspect the hotplate to make sure that it was efficiently working and then the last worker would place it in a box to be shipped.
“Job design involves specifically the content and methods of jobs. Job designers focus on what will be done in a job, who will do the job, how the job will be done, and where the job will be done.” (Stevenson, 2011, p.291) Industrial engineers carefully designed this assembly line by studying the breakdown of each subassembly task that required each task to be completed in three minutes. The problem with this process is that it seemed to keep morale down and hotplates were not being assembled properly, generating controllable rejects at 23 percent.
After discussing the low morale dilemma with management, they decided to try something new. Management asked workers if they would prefer to build the hotplates individually. This meant that instead one worker being responsible for assembling one part of the hotplate, the worker would be responsible for assembling a hotplate in its entirety. The workers decided to give this process a try, but would go back to the old process if this one was unsuccessful. After changing to this process, productivity elevated quickly to an increase of 84 percent higher than productivity of the first half of the year.
The redesigning of the workflow and the increase of worker empowerment are the changes that occurred to increase productivity and lower the number of controllable rejects. By redesigning the workflow, the workers were responsible for assembling the entire hotplate instead of one part of the plate. This could also be called job enlargement....